My Awkward Angel
by N3K0-sensei
Summary: Alrick was just living a normal life. At least that was until Peter convinced him to transfer over to his boarding school. He's suddenly found himself surrounded by a bunch of weirdos. The biggest being Engel, his art obsessed and socially awkward roommate. He's messy, weird, and just can't seem to hold a conversation. But can Alrick look past those flaws, and into Engel's heart.?
1. Chapter 1

Hey there guys! N3k0-sensei here! :3

This is the first ever real fanfic I have ever written, and it's also my first time really writing anything for Hetalia so please be gentle.~  
Before we move along with the actual story, I need to address some issues that people might have with this story, so I am gonna give you guys a little background info. This story focuses mainly on the micronations of Hetalia, and since not much is really known about their characters I took it upon myself to change a few things. I made up names for some of the characters, changed ages, and had to tweak relationships a bit. (An example of what I mean by tweaking, in this story Australia is not England's brother. A lot of people apparently tend to make them brothers when writing fanfiction, I made them cousins instead. So any of the micronations related to England are only cousins. There's a reason for it, but I'll tell you that later.) I am saying this now so that if it bothers anyone, they'll know ahead of time and decide if they still want to continue reading.

You'll find out more detail as the story goes on. Please put up with the little changes my lovelies and keep on being awesome. I hope you like this little slice-of-life type story and hopefully it will inspire more amateur writers like myself to write their own stories. :3  
I do not own Hetalia or any of it's characters, all credit goes to Hidekaz Himaruya.

* * *

The young man let out an annoyed sigh as he walked down the hall trying to find his dorm room. He reached into his pocket for the crumbled up piece of paper and looked door to door to find the number that matched his. Just how long had he been at this anyway? He was getting sick off staring at all these doors, he just wanted to hurry up and find his room so he could plop himself on the bed and rest. Guess this was just another thing he would have to get used to now that he was attending this new boarding school.

Alrick didn't always attend boarding school, before he came here he was just another average guy going to a normal high school. He lived in an apartment with his older brother Berwald, his boyfriend Tino, and their dog Hanatamago for a few years. He used to share a room with his adopted brother Peter Kirkland, but he'd moved out about 2 years ago to transfer to this boarding school. It was a little strange having that bundle of hyper energy out of the house, but it hardly felt like he left. Everyday after he would come home from school, Peter would spam his cell phone with text messages saying how great the school was. Apparently some of his cousins had also transferred there, so he'd go on and on for hours about all the fun they were having and how awesome it would be if Alrick could come along too.

Usually he didn't really listen to what Peter had to say-after all his 'brother' wasn't the most sensible guy around- but he was actually beginning to consider the idea. Being at that school sure seemed better then the alternative. After all, all Alrick ever did here was go to school, come home, and spend the rest of his time online. There wasn't anyone at school that he was really friends with and all his classes were boring. Maybe boarding school would be a good change, Berwald and Tino didn't seem to mind it either.  
And because of all that, he now found himself here. In a hallway. Lost. Because of Peter.

No surprise there.

He sighed again and continued down the hall, carrying his luggage which only seemed to get heavier as the minutes went by. Maybe he should just ask for directions. But when all seemed lost, he finally spotted his room number and smiled. Thank GOD. He took out his key and opened the was at that moment that it hit him. If Alrick remembered correctly, Peter told him that around here it was a common thing for you to be assigned a roommate. He was so busying searching for his room that he'd forgotten all about it. It made him curious, just what kind of person was he sharing a room with? He opened the door slowly and took a peak inside...no one was there.

"Well this sucks." he mumbled to himself. All that curiosity for nothing, but whatever, he'd meet his roommate eventually. He took a step inside and found himself nearly tripping over something on the floor. "What the hell?!" He looked down at the ground annoyed and picked up the strange object. It was a clock. What the hell was a clock doing on the floor? Alrick looked around wide eyed, the clock wasn't the only thing out of place here.

The room was absolutely cluttered. Books and crumbled up papers were scattered randomly on the floor, brushes and pencils could be found in every direction, and there were so many paintings and sculptures that you didn't know where to put them all. Alrick just stood there in awe. This was where he would be living for a year. Of course HE would be the one to get paired up with someone so unorganized. Least he knew something about his roommate now. Whatever, he could worry about all this crap later, he just wanted to crawl into bed and sleep. He dropped his bag randomly on the floor since he knew his roommate obviously wouldn't mind, and jumped onto his bed. Least the bed felt comfortable then again he was pretty sure he could sleep on the floor at this rate. Alrick let out a content sigh and was about to close his eyes when suddenly his cell phone vibrated. Who could be calling him at a time like this? He reached into his pocket and glared.

Peter.

Why was he not surprised?

Alrick groaned and answered the call.

"What's up man! Did you make it to your room okay?" Peter said, you could practically hear him smiling.

"No, I spent like half an hour just trying to find the dorms. You're the one who told me to come here, least you could do was help me find my way around." he said a bit annoyed, he sat up in bed.

"Didn't think you'd have much trouble. You tired or something Alrick, you sound a little sleepy. You should probably get some rest later."

"I will kill you Peter."

"You can do that later. Right now you gotta come outside and join the rest of us!"

"And by us you mean the new pals you made here right?" Alrick said as he got out of bed, stretching. Sadly sleep would have to wait until later.

"Yeah, and trust me you wont be the only newbie here. We actually have someone else that transferred today too! He's one year younger then us, but he seems cool." Peter said, finally having all his friends together was making him excited. "Hurry up and get outside man, we're gonna be at the fountain. You probably saw it on your way inside. Don't keep us waiting too long."

"Alright I got it, I'll be there. See yah in a few."

* * *

It wasn't as hard for him to find his way out as it was getting in. He only hoped finding his room would be easier the second time around. This time he was gonna drag Peter's ass with him if he had to. He spotted Peter and a few other people by the fountain, Peter was waving to him, that big cheesy grin on his face.

"ALRICK!" He jumped towards him and gave him a hug, he hadn't seen his brother in so long now. Alrick just stood there flustered pushing his clingy brother away.

"People are staring you weirdo! Get off!" he said feeling his cheeks heat up a bit. Peter just kept laughing but eventually he gave in and let go.

"Same old Alrick, just like you were when I left you." He said, " Well come on I wanna introduce you to some people." Peter grabbed his hand, Alrick just awkwardly followed, not being able to pull free from his brother's iron grip. Peter was always so strong for like no reason, it was mind blowing. When they stopped Alrick was greeted with a lot of new faces.

"Guys this is my brother Alrick Oxenstierna, the one I told you about. Alrick these are my friends." he motioned with his hand and stood beside one of them, wrapping his arm around their shoulders. "This girl here is Cali Kirkland, she's my cousin." The girl was a young girl, probably 17 like he was. She had brown eyes and beautiful dark brown hair that was tied in a sideways ponytail adorned with a red flower. Her style was simple, shorts and a tank top, covered by a bright pink smock and red ascot.

"Pleasure to meet you." she said with a small smile.

"These two guys are her brothers, Aiden and Toby." Peter said, placing his hands on the two male's arms. The older one, Aiden, was quite tall. He had wavy light brown hair and a curl coming from the part in his hair. His eyes were bright and amber colored, and there was a bandage covering his cheek. His overall appearance was very clean and stylish. He wore a collared shirt with a small black bow tie and was carrying a rather nice looking purple jacket in his arm. The other brother, Toby, was a lot shorter and younger looking. Alrick assumed this must have been the new boy that Peter was talking about earlier. His whole demeanor was so innocent and childlike. His hair was light brown with two curly bobs on each side of his head and large green eyes graced his face. His style was simpler compared to his brothers. He just wore a simple red shirt and black pants.

"And this guy right here is one of my new besties, he's pretty quiet, but he's cool. His name is Satoshi Honda, but you can call him Sato." Peter said and pointed to the last of them. This one was a little shorter then Peter. Unlike everyone else, this one seemed a lot more reserved and quiet. He had brown eyes and wore clothes as black as his hair. He was sitting there eating a bag of chips he'd brought along and Peter just laughed. "Yeah he really likes to eat." Alrick stared at the petite Japanese boy curiously and was met with a small smile.

"It's very nice to meet you." Satoshi said and bowed his head.

"_Geez, Peter sure managed to attract a weird group of friends_." Alrick thought to himself, they were all pretty diverse. He wandered how such different people could all get along so well. Suddenly he felt a pair of hands cover his eyes from behind. "Who the he-?!"  
"Hey now, you better not forget to mention me Peter." Alrick stopped, he knew that voice. He took the hands from his eyes and turned around in shock. "Romeo?!"

"The one and only!" The chipper Italian greeted him with a smile. Romeo Vargas was a pretty good friend of his and Peter's in the past. Yeah, admittedly, he found the Italian kind of annoying at first, seeing how he always went along with whatever weird scheme Peter came up with. Not too mention he was constantly trying to play the role of the responsible older brother and teach them about girl and love. But he got used to him after a while and became pretty good friends with him. He wondered why Romeo had suddenly stopped visiting them so often, but now it seemed clear why. The guy hadn't changed much since Alrick last saw him. Still the same brown hair with that odd little curl coming out of his head and cheery green eyes. "Bet you missed me didn't you my adorable amico." Romeo pinched his cheeks and Alrick blushed, pushing his hand off.

"Don't make a scene you odd ball. What are you doing here?"  
"Well I've been here for a while-"

"Yeah I figured that much, but you should be 19 by now right? Why the hell are you still attending this school? Shouldn't you be in college or something?" Romeo gave him a sheepish smile and scratched the back of his head.

"Yeah about that...well...I got held back." He said with a nervous grin. "I got pretty lazy and didn't do so well. I sorta had to beg them to let me stay here another year. It's a good thing all the head honchos here are women. No lady can resist a man in tears!~" Cali was quick to meet his comment with a kick to the Italian's shin. Alrick just stared, he didn't know whether to be a impressed by his accomplishment, or be impressed by his stupidity.

"I'm not suppose to be in this dorm either, I'm 22. I only come here to hang out with these guys and see my sister. I am friends with security here, so I come and go when I please." Aiden said with a charming smile.

Dear God, Peter really was a magnet for attracting the weird ones...

"We're still missing Issac, but he was too busy to come today, but hey we got Alrick so tonight will be just as awesome!" Peter said hugging his adoptive bro close. Alrick just looked at him confused.

"Tonight? What's happening tonight?"

"Celebration of course! We're gonna hang out in my room and celebrate the addition of our two newest members. Tonight is your's and Toby's night, it's gonna be epic!" Peter said throwing him a peace sign. Well that meant sleeping was definitely off the table until after the party. " Hey if you want you could even invite your roommate to the party. How is he anyway?"

"Ugh, don't even get me started on him. I haven't met him in person yet, but I've seen the way he's left our room. It's a big mess, he needs to organize it better and clean up cause I sure as hell am not picking up after him."

"Aww come on, lighten up. A little mess never hurt anyone." Toby said with a smile. "I haven't meant my roommate yet either, but I am sure they'll be nice."

"Yeah, and I doubt your roommate is as messy as mine. Seriously, I thought girls were suppose to be cleaner then guys, but I swear when you boys aren't around girls become such slobs. It's annoying, I don't have any place to put my pictures." Cali said puffing her cheeks.

"My roommate has the opposite problem, he thinks he has plenty of space to put his pictures and because of that the room is so crowded. I like art a lot too, but it's hard to take the time to admire any of it when you're literally falling over someone else's masterpiece." Alrick said with a groan. He wondered how long he would be able to endure before he snapped at at his roommate about cleaning. Yeah he wasn't the cleanest guy either but still.

"Your roommate is an artist too?" Romeo asked.

"Apparently, but again, I've never seen his face so I wouldn't know who he is."

"...Well, I might know someone. But I can't be too certain if it's him." Cali said. Peter gave her a raised brow.

"You mean Engel?

"Who's Engel?" Alrick asked. Cali pointed behind him and everyone turned their head. Cali had pointed towards one of the large trees surrounded the school, and sitting against the tree, knees propped up and sketchbook in his lap, was a young teen. Alrick stared wide eyed, he thought it was a girl at first, the boy had such long ,gorgeous white hair put into two perfectly done braids and a red beret sitting on top of his head. His purple eyes were narrow, deeply concentrated on the picture in front of him. And yet something about that focused gaze seemed so...tranquil. So at peace.

"That guy is Engel, Engel Edelstein. I met him here in an art class 3 years ago, not too many guys seem to join art classes here so having him there was rare and he stuck out."

"What's he like?" Alrick asked, if this guy did happen to somehow be his new roommate, then it was best to find out as much about him as possible.

"I can't really say, no one can." Cali said honestly.

"You've known him for 3 years and don't even know what he's like?"

"It's not like I ignore him, if anything it's him who seems to ignore everyone else."

"My sister is right Alrick, no one really knows anything about Engel." Aiden said looking over at the mysterious boy. "He's very quiet, he never talks to anyone. Whether it be students, teacher, no one has ever really gotten the chance to talk with him about anything. He just sits there drawing during class and locking himself up in his dorm room."

"Yeah, the only time anyone ever hears him talking is when he starts mumbling to himself. Whenever he's alone or gets really into a painting, he starts talking to himself."

"One time I passed by his room and actually heard Engel yelling for the first time. I guess he must have finished some sort of great masterpiece or something, because he suddenly just started yelling 'This is art!' or something along those lines. It was freaky, it was the first time I ever heard him get so loud, I got scared." Seborga shivered a little remembering it.

"I guess if we had to say anything about him, it's that...well, to be blunt, he's weird." Peter said," A different type of weird then what we are used to. He just isn't the kind of person that's easy to approach."

Alrick sorta just stood there taking all this new information in and he just didn't know how to react. So not only was he spending the rest of the school year living in some cluttered hermit's cave, but he just found out that he might be rooming with some socially awkward weirdo. What kind of cruel fate was this?!

"Hey don't worry about it too much, I mean there are a few other male artists around here. I'm sure one of them could be your roommate too." Cali said trying to cheer him up a bit, it wasn't really helping much.

"With my luck, I seriously doubt that." he said. "Look, I am gonna go back to my room, I didn't get a chance to unpack any of my things, and I seriously need to try finding places for my stuff. So I am just gonna meet with you guys later, just text me the room number I'll find my way..eventually."

"Okay hope you find your way back okay." Peter said.

"...Your ass is coming with me. I refuse to get lost again." He pulled Peter away from the fountain and brought him back inside

* * *

"God, took a while but I finally unpacked everything." Alrick fell back on his bed and looked up at the ceiling. He managed to go through most of the mess and found suitable places for his clothes. He found more random color pencils and erasers in random places, but it wasn't too much of a nuisance. He sighed and turned on his side. Man was he tired, today felt so long and he just wanted to go to bed. But he'd promised Peter that he would go to his room later on for that party. Sleep was gonna have to be put on hold. He sat up and opened up his laptop, going online would keep him busy enough. He liked surfing the web a lot, there was always a lot of funny and interesting things to be found online. So many videos to watch and games to play, it was like a whole other world existed within the internet. It was his personal way of escaping things that bugged him in the real world or when he just had too much on his mind. And he had plenty on his mind today. A little online action was just what he needed.

The red head sat on his bed playing around on his laptop for a while. He was currently sitting back and laughing at some random YouTube vid he found when he heard the doorknob turn. Alrick looked up from his laptop and stared.

It must be his roommate.

Finally he would get to see the the face of this mysterious figure. The one who probably spent hours on end sketching and drawing pictures as if it were the only thing he knew how to do. The one who quite clearly didn't learn a thing about picking up after himself. He opened the door slowly and took a small step inside as he shut the door behind him. The teen stopped right in front of the door and looked over at his new companion, meeting eyes. Alrick gulped, he knew who it was gonna be before they even opened the door.

"...Hey, your names Engel, right?" Alrick muttered, and the white haired boy just stared blankly back at him.

* * *

Sort of a lengthy first chapter isn't it? XD Yeah, sorry if this sucks.  
I was trying to set the scene and introduce all the characters but...I don't think I did all that well. I am bad with introductions. ^ w ^  
Well regardless, I hope enjoyed this first chapter, tell me what you guys think and let me know if you want to see more! :D  
And if you are still wondering who the characters are:  
Engel A. Edelstein = Kugelmugel  
Alrick Oxenstierna= Ladonia  
Satoshi Honda= Niko Niko republic  
Cali Kirkland= Wy  
Aiden Kirkland= Hutt River  
Toby Kirkland= New Zealand  
Romeo Vargas= Seborga  
And of course Peter Kirkland is Sealand. :3  
Everyone except for Romeo, Aiden, and Toby in this chapter are 17.  
Aiden is 20, Romeo is 19, and Toby is 16. :)


	2. Chapter 2

Onto the next chapter, and yeah I realize that I made a small error in my last chapter.  
I made Aiden say he was 22, but at the very and I said he was 20. His real age is indeed 20, sorry if that may have confused anyone. xD  
I do not own Hetalia or any of it's characters, all credit goes to Hidekaz Himaruya.

* * *

Saying he felt awkward, was putting things mildly.

It'd only been thirty minutes since his new roommate Engel had entered the room, and Alrick could already see what his friends meant when they said the guy was weird. The second he got in the room, the strange white haired teen had sat himself on his bed and curled up into a little ball. That wasn't the part that bugged him though, it's not like he was doing any harm just sitting there. It was what happened after. Alrick had decided to just ignore him and continue watching his video as planned, but when he randomly took a glance over at Engel the guy was staring at him.

Like, really, _really_ staring at him.

It wasn't like some freaky wide eyed, 'I'm gonna kill you in your sleep' type stare. Actually, it was pretty much the opposite. His gaze was so calm and emotionless, but that was kinda the part that unnerved Alrick the most. Why was he just staring at him? Was it cause he was new? Did he not like him? He wanted to ask, but it was just like his friends said, Engel was the kind of person that just seemed too hard to approach. Alrick sighed, he would just have to keep on ignoring him, it's not like he would get anywhere trying to talk to him anyway. He put his headphones back in his ears and played the video. But no matter how hard he tried to keep his attention on the screen, he could still feel the other's stare burning into his side. Just what the hell was with this guy?!

If this was how it was gonna be like sharing a room with him everyday, maybe he should just consider switching with someone else. Alrick reached over and grabbed an apple he'd been saving to eat as a snack. It was a Golden Delicious, his favorite. Alrick stared at it with a small smiled and opened his mouth, ready to sink his teeth into the mouth watering fruit.

"Wait."

Alrick froze, the voice was so quiet, he scarcely heard it. And after another moment of silence, he figured he must have just imagined it.

"Wait." He was just about to bite into his apple when he heard the timid voice again. He whipped his head around to stare back at his roommate in awe. Engel...just spoke to him?

"...What is it?" Alrick asked. The red head watched in wonder as the other male reached under his pillow for a large sketchbook. Engel slowly got out of bed and walked towards him, taking a seat on the floor near Alrick's bedside. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I want to draw you." Engel replied bluntly, staring up at him.

"You want to...what?"

"I said I want to draw you..."

"You want to draw me?" Alrick eyed him curiously, was that the reason Engel had been staring at him for so long? He wanted to draw him? "But...why?"

"...Because you have a very strong profile. Your jaw structure is perfectly defined, you have nicely shaped cheek bones, and a lovely nose. And the way you hold your apple is very artistic. Yes, holding your apple is art." Engel said, his voice trailing off into a mumble.  
Alrick was surprised, after what his friends had told him, he didn't think Engel was the kind of person that really liked to talk. But if it was about art, Engel seemed like he could go on for ages. And what surprised him even more then that was that Engel liked his profile. For a guy who wasn't used to talking, he sure could say some embarrassing things. Alrick blushed a bit at the strange compliment and rubbed his neck. He wasn't too sure what to say to that. This guy really was odd.

"...So may I draw you please?" he asked. Alrick looked down at the him, the idea that this guy he barely even knew would have a picture of him in his sketchbook was kinda weird. But then again, it'd be pretty rude of him to say no. It's not like Engel was asking for too much anyway. Alrick sighed and turned back towards his screen, looking at the uneaten fruit in his hand.

"...Sure, why not. Just make it quick okay, I kinda wanna eat this." he said and gave in. And for just a second, he thought he saw some glimmer of excitement in Engel's eyes. The white haired boy nodded in thanks and opened up his sketchbook to a blank page. He readied his erasers and pencil sharpener at his side and looked up at Alrick.

"Pretend you are about to bite your apple and hold that pose please. " Alrick nodded, holding the apple close to his mouth and struck his pose. He could hear Engel's pencil scratching against the paper as he began to sketch. Alrick had taken some art classes in the past, but it was usually for things like sculpture and other forms of 3D art. He'd never had the privilege of being someone else's model and it was sorta new to him. Even though he couldn't see Engel, he could still sense his eyes on him. It was so strange, Alrick could literally feel the other's focus as his eyes went back and forth from his face to the paper. He was paying attention to every curve, every subtle crease and line on his face and transferring it to the paper. The way Engel's large purple eyes stay fixated on his face, studying him, it made him feel so strange, almost self-conscious.

He kinda wanted to glance over and see how Engel was doing, but if he showed even the smallest sign that he was going move Engel would tell him to hold still. It felt like it was taking forever, he just wanted to see the picture and eat his apple dammit.

"I'm finished." Engel said, Alexis sighed and dropped his arm to his side. Holding a pose for so long was weird. "Would you like to see it?"

"Yeah, I've been dying to see it since you started." Alrick said, being honest. Engel nodded and was about to show him when one of their phones went off. "Ugh, hold up I need to take this." Alrick looked down at the phone and once again, it was Peter. Wonderful. He answered the call and held the phone to his ear.

"Alrick! Where are you? I texted you my room number like 10 minutes ago, what are doing?" Peter asked," Don't tell me you aren't planning to come to the party?"

"Calm down Peter, I was just busy, didn't even realize you texted me. Just gimme a sec I'll be on my way." he said shoving the apple in his pocket. At this rate Peter was gonna make him collapse from exhaustion **and** hunger.

"Okay, you better hurry over here man. If you don't Satoshi might end up eating all the snacks." he said chuckling. Alrick rolled his eyes and couldn't help laugh at how weird his brother was. He ended the call and got up from the bed.

"Sorry, I'll take a look at your sketch later okay? I'm gonna head out to a friend's place. " he said looking over at Engel. "You gonna do anything while I'm gone?" The white haired male simply pointed to his sketchbook. All he was gonna do was draw? Didn't he ever at least try to do something else? If Alrick left now then he'd just be leaving him alone, then again maybe Engel preferred things that way.  
"...You wanna come with me?" Alrick said, extending an invitation. Engel just shook his head and crawled back to his bed to start working on another sketch. Looked like Aiden was right, he really didn't do anything but lock himself in his room all day. He sighed and slipped his shoes on, he didn't really bother fixing himself up in the mirror, he was gonna be with a bunch of guys anyway. Appearance meant nothing when you were hanging out with bros. He patted his pockets to make sure he had everything and nodded. "Well, um...guess I'll see you later then?" Engel said nothing, he only continued to stare into his sketchbook mumbling some words to himself. Alrick shrugged and reached for the doorknob.

"Can I...draw you again sometime?"

Alrick turned around and saw Engel gripping on the edges of his sketchbook, those same purple eyes watching him with a strange intensity. For a second, Alrick sorta had to wonder to himself if that was Engel's own weird way of showing that he was okay with having him around. It was definitely too early to really say that they were friends, and quite honestly Alrick still found Engel weird as all hell, but...

"Um...yeah sure." Alrick said. Letting Engel draw him a few times would be okay. Engel nodded and went back to sketching stuff out in his sketchbook, letting silence fall between them again. "Well...bye." Alrick left the room and closed the door behind him. Man...this was gonna take a lot of getting used to.

He pulled out his cellphone and texted Peter that he was on his way.

* * *

"_Te voglio bene assaje ma tanto, tanto bene sai è una catena ormai che scioglie il sangue dint'e vene saiiiiii!_~" Romeo sang and laughed loudly, his hands motioning through the air as though he were playing piano. Peter and Alrick couldn't contain their laughter as they saw the tipsy Italian stumbling and singing his tune.

"We told you not bring any alcohol Romeo, don't you think you're two years too young to start drinking." Alrick asked with a grin as he chugged down his soda. Romeo pranced over to his friend's side, drink in hand as he wrapped a strong arm around his shoulder.

"Please, back in Italy if you were 18 you could drink to your hearts content!" he said and took a sip from his cup. "And hey, what's a party without the drunk guy, right?" Alrick just rolled his eyes and took a slice of pizza from the box.

"You seriously shouldn't have brought that in here. This boarding school is full of minors so they are really strict about students drinking alcohol. If they catch you with that, you're gonna get in a lot of trouble and you can kiss your second chance here good bye." Cali said as she sat beside her brother Toby eating some chips.

"Oh come on sis, lighten up. Besides, Romeo isn't the only one breaking rules around here. Shouldn't a certain little Miss be staying in the girls dormitory right about now? You snuck out just to be here, so there's no point in going on about the rules now." Aiden said tucking a stray strand of hair behind his ear. "Listen to big brother and just relax."

"Hey at least I actually go to this school, you shouldn't be here either so hah." She stuck her tongue out. Toby laughed seeing his siblings bicker and patted Cali's shoulder.

"Come on, what matters is we're all having fun. So even if we are breaking a few rules I don't think it matters."

"Toby's right guys! Tonight is a night of celebration, there's not enough time to be wasting it on following rules." Peter climbed up on top of his bed and tapped the edge of his cup, bringing everyone to attention. "My dear Gentleman...and Cali, tonight we are here to honor the arrival of our two newest crew members. The sheep whisperer, the silent shepherd himself, Toby, my awesome cousin. And last but, certainly not least, the online addict, the ruler of the internet, my main hermano, Alrick! May this be the most epic and legendary school year of all time!" The room erupted into cheers as glass and plastics cups were raised high in the air. Everyone spent hours upon hours eating and having fun. Satoshi had brought a bunch of awesome video games for them to play. They would wager on who would win and would dare the loser to do whatever the winner asked. If some were bored of playing games, Romeo had brought his mini karaoke machine for them to use (though he kinda hogged the mic a lot and wound up breaking one of the tables when he used it as a stage). The room was so lively and festive, there wasn't a dull moment to be head. They sang, and danced, and played until they could see signs of the sky getting brighter. Granted, they made a huge mess and it would probably take forever to clean. But it was worth it.

"Holy crap guys...it's like 4:30 in the morning." Alrick said picking himself up off the floor, he pealed off some random pieces of candy that were stuck to his face and ruffled his hair. "I'm gonna be tired as hell when I get back to my dorm."

"But that's what celebrating is all about, staying up all night with your best buds and having a good time. What could be better?" Peter said with a grin.

"Yeah in fact, we should play some more games! Maybe a little _spin the bottle_?~" Romeo said sliding his hand around Toby's waist and stroking his chin. Cali threw a pillow at his face and pulled her younger brother into a hug.

"You seriously are drunk, don't taint my brother with your pervy thoughts weirdo!"

"I agree with Romeo, we should think of something fun to do before we leave. Like a game of twister or something." Aiden said.

"I would say Truth or Dare, but that's a little cliche. " Satoshi chimed in and took a bite of his donut.

"Yeah it is pretty cliche, but people only do it so much because it can be pretty fun. Who knows, maybe we won't do it today, but we could try doing it during another one of our little group get togethers." Peter said with a mischievous grin. "I wanna be able to make little Alrick do something fun." Alrick shoved his bro away and flicked his head.

"No way, you guys can do ahead and do that if you want, but count me out. I got way too much to worry about already. I'm not gonna add more to my plate just because you guys wanna make me do something stupid."

"Aw, looks like someone is still a little grumpy about the whole roommate thing. Oh, did you finally get to see who you were rooming with? You must have seen him by now haven't you?" Romeo asked.

"Yeah...it was just like I thought, I got a room with Engel."

"You guys make him seem like a total freak." Toby said," I thought you guys out of all people would be a little more accepting. I mean, no offense, but this group is made up off nothing but outcasts. Someone like Engel should be able to fit right in."

"It's not that we don't accept and we don't really think he's freaky...he's just...hard to talk to." Cali said, Aiden and Satoshi nodded. "Sometimes it seems like all he ever wants to do is draw, and that isn't really a bad thing. But it's like he doesn't really like interacting with people much, sometimes we wonder if he really wants anything to do with them. So we kinda just let him have his space. I mean...isn't that what it's sorta like living with him Alrick? Doesn't he just keep to himself a lot?" Alrick thought about that, he'd be lying if he said that wasn't true. Engel wasn't exactly a social butterfly, he sorta just did things in solitude and when he offered to bring him over here, he didn't even stop to think about it. He just told him no. But to say he wanted nothing to do with people...

_"I want to draw you."_

_"Can I...draw you again sometime?"_

"...Hey guys, I think I am gonna head back a bit early. You guys keep having fun, I'm just gonna go and hit the hay." He stretched and fumbled around in his pockets for his phone and room key.

"Awwww, but Alrick," Peter whined," you can't just go! You're one of our guests of honor!"

"Don't complain, this is all your fault you know. If you hadn't called me earlier and interrupted my nap, then maybe I could have gotten some sleep. Now I'm gonna go, I'll talk to you guys later." Alrick waved good bye to his friends, left Peter's room and walked back to his. Luckily he'd already learned the way by now so he got there in no time at all. As he opened the door he had to wonder about Engel. What was he doing while he'd been out partying with his friends all night? Was he really just sitting there on his bed sketching the whole time? Alrick sighed. As if any of this really mattered, Engel was probably fast asleep by now. He opened the door up very quietly, trying not to make a sound. But as he opened the door he nearly jumped back from shock.

"Engel?!" He was still awake?! What the hell? Alrick closed the door behind him and tossed his stuff on the bed. He went to where Engel was, still sitting on his bed, sketchbook in hand like he'd left him, and pointed towards the clock. "It's nearly 5 in the morning, what the hell are you still doing up? Did you seriously spend the whole night drawing? "

Engel shook his head.

"Then what the hell have you been doing all night? Did something keep you up? Loud noises, bad dream?"

"...Title."

"What?" Okay now he was confused, what was he talking about. Alrick looked down at the drawing Engel was staring at and looked at it with wide eyes.

It was him. The sketch of him that Engel had drawn earlier. He knew Engel was an artist and all, but he didn't think that he would be so...so great at it. The picture was so perfect, so spot on that it was scary. Like looking at a photograph. If it weren't for the matter at hand, Alrick would probably be praising him.

"...I needed a title. I couldn't think of one, so I sat here thinking."

"You were...you were seriously up all night just thinking of a title?" Engel nodded. "But why?"

"Thinking of titles is art." Okay honestly, the things that came out of this guy's mouth made like no sense. Alrick stared down at the picture of himself and pondered with him, a title huh? Thinking about it now, he never actually introduced himself to Engel, he knew a lot about Engel from what his friend told him, but Engel didn't know a single thing about him. Not even his name."

"...Alrick." Engel stared over at him with his head cocked to the side. "Call it' Alrick', that's my name so I think it would be fitting."

"...Alrick...I like it." Engel took his pencil and quickly scribbled in the new title at the bottom corner of the page along with his artist signature. "Now it's finally done."

"Good. God, I honestly can't believe you spent this whole night fussing over a title. That's so dumb. Seriously, you need to get some sleep." Alrick shoved his hands in his pockets and felt something smooth. He pulled the random object out and stared it it. It was his Golden Delicious apple. Right, he never did get a chance to eat this thing. He looked back at his roommate and placed the apple down on Engel's nightstand. "Here, you keep it. You don't have to eat it, I figure you'd just like looking at it. You like drawing stuff like this right?"

"Apples...are art." And there he goes, saying nonsense again. Alrick sighed. Talking to this guy was weird. Still...this was the closest he's gotten to having an actual conversation with him. Sure he didn't really talk back much, but that was sorta okay every now and then.

"Right, right, apples are art. Whatever I'm gonna go to sleep." He took his shoes and shirt off and plopped onto bed, getting comfortable, his back turned to his roommate. While Alrick laid there, waiting for the bliss of sleep to finally take over, he suddenly felt a familiar pair of eyes watching his back. He was almost certain Engel was looking his way, but he didn't bother to turn around and confirm it. He just kept his eyes shut and drifted away into some well deserved sleep.

* * *

Engels a creep lol jk  
Well wasn't that a fun second chapter? XD Yeah, we got see Engel's adorable awkwardness firsthand. Poor Alrick, he really just doesn't know how to handle the weird artist type.  
Oh well. lol And if anyone is wondering what song Romeo was singing, it's called Caruso by Lucio Dalla. Quite a beautiful song. I recommend listening to it. :)  
Please tell me what you guys think and tell me if you want to see more. If you suggest something you wanna see, I might even add it into my story. :3


	3. Chapter 3

Third chapter is here! :D  
I do not own Hetalia or any of it's characters, all credit goes to Hidekaz Himaruya.

* * *

Alrick's first morning of actual class could only be described in one word.

Chaotic.

Because of how late he'd gone to bed, he wound up sleeping through the wake up call and was utterly knocked out during breakfast. If Peter hadn't called his cell when he did, he may not have woken up for hours. By then it was 8 'o clock, that only gave him roughly 15 minutes to brush his teeth, change, and make a mad dash for his first class. Needless to say, he had freaked out. It was already one thing that he was new and didn't know anyone besides Peter and his friends, but now everyone would label him as 'the late guy' and pick fun. No way was that going down, the last he wanted was to draw attention to himself. If he could just speed up his usual morning routine and manage his time right, then maybe he'd make it.

But of course this was _his_ life. And nothing in _his_ life was allowed to be that easy.

The second he tried getting out of bed, his body had been weighed down by a mountain of strange clothes that weren't even his. It didn't take a genius to figure out who's they were. Alrick threw the clothes off of him and barely missed getting hit in the face with one of Engel's shirts. His strange little roommate was rummaging through his closet, tossing clothes behind him and making an even bigger mess of the floor. Of course this irritated Alrick to no end. He yelled at him asking what the hell he was doing, and Engel told him he'd been up since 7 a.m trying to pick out clothes saying that 'it was an art' or something and couldn't find a proper outfit. That only succeeded in making Alrick even more pissed, because now that just brought up the question of why he didn't even bother waking him if he was already up? Engel was mumbling to himself by then, so he couldn't really hear. But Alrick was sure he heard him mumble something about his sleeping face being 'art' and that after he'd picked out his clothes he was planning on drawing him and didn't want him to move.

If Alrick only knew him better, he'd probably have strangled him.

But he didn't have the time to kill his roommate, he needed to get the hell out and into class. He grabbed the nearest pair of jeans and some random t-shirt before slipping his sneakers on and bolting out the door. It must have been some miracle of God that he made it there on time. A minute more and the late bell would have rang. The worst was over, but it was still hard as hell for him to keep awake during all his classes. Sure, the classes were okay and his teachers seemed nice enough, but everything they said was so boring. Alrick could hardly keep his eyes open.

Now it was lunch time, he promised Peter that he would eat lunch outside with him and Satoshi, so he decided to wait for them on one of the little tables set up outside the cafeteria. His face was laying flat on the table and he wanted nothing more then to drift away into the land of dreams.

"HEY THERE BRO!"

Alrick jumped and nearly fell backwards on his chair. Peter burst into a fit laughter and sat down in a seat across from him. He couldn't help it, he lived for this.

"Sorry Alrick, you were lying there like a rock, I just had to." Peter said with his toothy smile. Alrick merely glared and flipped the bird at him from across the table. "It's reactions like that, that make picking on you all the more worth it. It's too fun."

"It's no fun for me you ass, I'm tired as hell. God, I just want the classes to be over with so I can go to bed." Alrick said and rubbed his sleepy eyes.

"You should eat, maybe it'll give you some more energy." Satoshi said, handing him the tray of food Alrick told them to get. He took his seat beside Peter and started eating his lunch with a smile.

"Doubt it, but I am pretty hungry." Alrick said and popped a french fry in his mouth. "I didn't get the chance to eat this morning because I missed breakfast and didn't have time to grab any food."

"Sorry, it was our fault. We kept you up most of the night." Satoshi said.

"Whatever, it's fine. It's not entirely your guy's fault, if anything, it's my roommate's." Alrick said as he remembering the havoc of this morning.

"You mean Engel? What did he do now?" Peter asked.

"More like what he didn't do. Engel stayed up late last night too and even though he was in the room the entire time he didn't bother to set the alarm. Then he goes and tells me that he was already awake before me and didn't even try to wake me up. Honestly, I don't get that guy's thinking at all." Alrick said rubbing his temple.

"That is weird, I wonder why he did that." Peter said sipping on his drink. Of course Alrick already knew why. But he'd decided to leave that little detail out. If Peter knew that Engel kept him sleeping just so he could draw his face, he would never hear the end of his teasing.

"So I take it you two aren't exactly getting along?" Satoshi asked.

"I'm not sure you can call it 'not getting along' exactly. Engel...I guess he's just a bit of a handful. He's really messy and he's got these strange little habits of his. Normally, when you have a problem with your roommate you're suppose to talk it out, but I just can't do that with him. I mean sure I can just tell him 'don't do this, don't do that', but I don't know if he'll always listen." Alrick let out a big sigh and laid his head on the table," He's just so different, it's exhausting."

"Yeah, Engel seems different to a lot of people. That's why we told you rooming with him was gonna be weird. We always figured if he acted so strange in public, then he must act really,_ really_ strange when he's alone in his room."

"I dunno about that, he doesn't seem to act all that different in his room than he does out here."

"Hey, you said it yourself, you haven't roomed with him long enough to really know him. For all you know, he could have some sort of hidden dark side. Like, maybe Engel is a secret serial killer that paints using the blood of his vitims. " Peter said, wiggling his fingers creepily in the air. Alrick threw him a skeptical look. "Okay, okay, so maybe not all that scary and dramatic, but everyone has something they like to keep hidden. Just give it time Alrick, you'll see it."

"I seriously doubt it, he can't be anymore weird then he already is. And he's pretty open about the kind of personality he has, I don't think he's got much to hide." Alrick said as he finished up the last of his food. Well eating certainly solved the hunger issue, but he was still feeling pretty sleepy. He let out a yawn and got up from his seat. "I think I'm gonna go to the vending machines and buy myself a soda or something. You guys want anything?"

"No, but thank you." Satoshi said with a smile.

"I'll have a chocolate bar please!" Peter exclaimed with a hand in the air.

Alrick walked over to the rows and rows of soda and snack machines, this school had a pretty big selection. They weren't the fanciest school ever, but they supplied students well. Alrick took out his wallet and bought Peter his chocolate, now he just had to decide what to get. He kinda wanted something sugary to help get him through the day, like maybe an energy drink or something.

"Excuse me." A familiar voice came from behind. Alrick turned around and was met with the same apathetic purple orbs he saw this morning.

"Oh, it's you Engel." Alrick stepped aside and let his roommate walk through. This was his first time talking with him outside their dorm room. "_Guess he wants to buy something from the vending machine too_." Alrick watched as Engel walked over to the front of the snack machine and stood there, hands pressed up against the glass. He seemed especially focused, it was kind of funny, Alrick always thought that stare was reserved for when he was drawing. Engel seemed to be looking for something in particular and it made Alrick curious. Aside from drawing and art, he didn't really know about the kind of things that interested Engel, or if such another interest even existed. So seeing him pay so much attention to something-even if that something was nothing more than food-beside art really piqued at his curiosity.

Engel's eyes lit up a bit, or least Alrick thought they did, and the shorter male dug into his pocket searching for something. His wallet, Alrick guessed. But after a while of rummaging and searching, Engel couldn't find it. The white haired teen looked back up at the machine and lightly sighed. It almost made Alrick feel a little bad. It was like watching a little kid have his candy taken from him.

"...Do you want something from the machine?" Alrick asked, Engel whipped his head around and stared back at him. " I mean, I got plenty of extra cash to spare. If you want something, all you gotta do is ask."

"...No." Engel spoke in a hushed tone," It's fine."

"Are you sure? I mean...you seem like you really-" Before you could even finish his sentence, Engel was already walking away and going back inside. "Hey! Engel!...What the hell was that about?" Alrick looked into the machine and the vast amount of snacks and still couldn't help wonder what it was Engel was so interested in.

* * *

"Thank you God, now I can finally sleep."

The classes were finally over and that meant nothing but rest and relaxation. He would probably have to get up and go to dinner later, but at least that still gave him a good four hours to spend sleeping. Alrick opened the door to their dorm and looked inside.

"Yo Engel, are you-" He started, but stopped as soon as he noticed Engel sprawled out on the floor laying in a pile of his wrinkled clothes. Alrick sighed, there really was no helping this guy. He walked quietly over to him and crouched down. Engel was still fully dressed, he didn't even take of his shoes and yet he still let himself fall asleep. Guess that shouldn't have come as a total surprise, Engel had gotten even less sleep then he had last night. He must have been pretty tired.

Although, he had to admit, Engel laying on all those clothes looked pretty comfortable. So much so that he contemplated just collapsing right beside him and going to sleep, but he thought against it. Waking up next to each other could lead to some awkward scenario. Alrick was about to get up and go to bed, but he knew he couldn't just leave Engel laying there. That left him with only one option, he only prayed that Engel didn't wake up in the middle of all this so he could spare himself the awkwardness of explaining. It was kinda tricky at first, but Alrick finally scooped the smaller male in his arms bridal style and lifted him up off the ground.

"_Wow, he's pretty light_." Alrick thought, he could feel Engel shift a bit in his arms and was worried that maybe he might have woken him. But Engel didn't wake up, instead he curled himself up closer to Alrick's chest, trying to grasp at the warmth his body supplied. The red head blushed a bit, he knew Engel was tired and probably only doing that our of sheer instinct, but still it felt odd. Alrick shook the feeling off and carefully carried Engel over to his bed and set him down gently. Engel groaned in his sleep, no longer feeling the warmth of the other's chest. Alrick chuckled, "_He acts like a little kid_." He took off Engels shoes and beret for him and pulled the covers over him to keep him warm. Yeah, a kid really was the best way to describe him.

"You're lucky I like kids." He mumbled and gently poked his cheek, "Now if only we could teach you to clean up after yourself." With a small sigh he turned to walk over to his bed and accidentally bumped into Engel's nightstand. He heard the thump of something falling into his little trash bin and cursed beneath his breathe. Luckily Engel still hadn't woken up. Alrick bent down to look for what had fell and to his surprise, it was his Golden Delicious from yesterday. "_...He actually kept this thing?_" Alrick had originally handed it to him as sort of a joke, he thought maybe Engel would just eat it or throw it away but...he actually kept it. Alrick glanced over at the sleeping artist. Alrick seriously didn't get him.

Engel never tries talking to others, yet when he does he speaks so bluntly to them. He's willing to make someone sleep in just so he can use them for a picture, yet doesn't take advantage of someone's kindness when they offer to buy him food. When it's between going out and hanging with friends or staying inside, he'll always choose seclusion, as if people don't seem to matter. But then he clings onto things that are so simple, things like this apple, all because someone gave it to him...

"_What's his deal..?_" He didn't know why he cared so much, but he couldn't help it. Engel was such a mystery. Alrick could probably spend an eternity with him and still never know all there is to know about him. His face grew red at the thought. An eternity with Engel? No thanks. He stood up and placed the apple back on the nightstand, but quickly noticed a stray wrapper that had found it's way out of the garbage. "_No matter where you turn, there's always a mess._" He bent down to pick it up and stared at the strange wrapper, reading the small white font that spelled out the word 'Baumkuchen.'

Baumkuchen?

"_...Wait a minute...baumkuchen...the vending machine that Engel was looking at earlier..._" He vaguely recalled seeing the ring shaped pastry being sold in the large machine. Alrick looked down towards the trash bin and realized just how many more of the same wrappers were surrounding it. "_This must have been the thing Engel was looking for..._"

Next thing he knew, he was grabbing his keys and heading out the door.

* * *

Engel woke up, rubbing his tired eyes. He stared at the clock, 6:30, he still had 30 minutes before someone called them to go eat dinner. He dropped himself back down onto the bed and burried his face into the pillow...Pillow? Engel sat back up and stared down at his bed, when had he gotten here? He knew he didn't fall asleep here when he came from class. He was too tired to even reach the bed, he'd just chosen the comfiest pile of clothes he could find and took a nap. He felt for his beret on the top of his head, his favorite hat was missing, his shoes too. And he definitely he'd fallen asleep with them on, that he remembered. So how did he end up like this?

Purple eyes shifted, his gaze now on Alrick. His shirtless roommate laid there sleeping soundly beneath his covers, his bare chest rising and falling with each breathe. Was it because of him? Did he do all this for him while he was asleep? He fiddled with the blanket in his hand and gazed deeply into his pillow..Alrick did this...

Engel spotted his red beret by his pillow, how silly of him not to have noticed it before, he really was still tired after all. He grabbed his beret to place it on his nightstand for when he woke up later on, but when he lifted it up his eyes widened. Because beneath his treasured red hat was a small, ring shaped pastry in a clear wrapper.

Baumkuchen.

Engel's eyes darted back to his roommate, a rare look of surprise showing on his face.

Alrick...bought this for him?

* * *

Chatter and laughter had filled the cafeteria, all the students had come together to eat their dinner and hang out with their friends and Alrick's table was no exception. Dinner and lunch were the few times other then during class when it was okay to have both the boys and girls together, so Cali was able to join them. Each of them were doing their usual thing. Peter and Romeo with their weird little comedy routines, Toby and Cali laughing, Alrick watching them make complete idiots of themselves and Satoshi pigging out on food. Aiden couldn't join them sadly, even though the cafeteria was crowded he said it was still easier for supervisors to spot him compared to all the other kids. But they were all still having fun. Alrick was just kicking back and eating his meal when a hand was placed on his shoulder. He thought maybe it was just one of the teachers or Aiden finally deciding not to give a damn and take a risk to go eat with them. But it wasn't either.

"Engel?" Alrick looked up at him confused, all his friends at his table stopped what they were doing watched in disbelief. No one had ever actually seen Engel approach someone before. "Something wrong?

"..."Engel stared down at his feet.

"...Something you need to do?" Alrick asked.

"..."

"...Something you need to ask?"

He nodded silently.

"In private?"

He nodded again. Well that was new. Alrick looked over at his friends, they were still pretty surprised, but they nodded understanding that he had to go. He got up from his chair and followed Engel without question, but inside, he was just itching to know what it was Engel needed to talk to him about. Was it serious or something?

"_If this has anything to do with art, I am going to hit him._" Alrick thought, Engel would be the type to lead him on and make him worry over nothing.

Engel led them back into the hallway just outside the cafeteria door, everyone was eating now so they were pretty much alone. Alrick leaned back on one of the walls and stared at his roommate ready to hear whatever it was he had to say.

"...I'll try making this quick." Engel muttered, he seemed to be holding something behind his back. If he was trying to hide that he had it, he wasn't doing a very good job.

"Engel, I don't get what yo-" The words were caught in his throat as Engel suddenly whipped out the mystery item from behind his back and held it out for Alrick to see. It was the baumkuchen he got for him earlier. "...What are you doin-?"

"I'm sorry."Engel managed to say, he still held out that small pastry in his hands as his eyes stayed glued to the floor. "I'm very sorry...about this morning. I...because of me wanting to draw you, I made you late for class. You looked angry and you were yelling. It...was my fault, I didn't think you cared about class, so I didn't think you would mind...and because of that, you had to rush to class." Alrick stared in awe, this was the most he'd ever heard come of Engels mouth. He was quiet and his speech was choppy, obviously not used to speaking so muc,. but he was still making the effort to try.

"Earlier...during lunch, I was planning on buying you this baumkuchen. Whenever I am upset or sad, I like to eat it...because it makes me happy." Engel continued," I thought maybe if I bought you one, you'd be happy too. ..But I didn't have my wallet and because of that, you ended up wasting money buying it for me when it was meant for you. So...I am sorry...I checked my wallet and I don't have the money yet, but I'll pay you back...Until then please, take this."

Alrick was at a loss for words. What should he even say? He looked at the ring shaped confection for a moment and slowly reached out to grab it from the other's hand. Alrick opened the clear wrapping and took the small pastry out, but he didn't eat it. Instead, he broke it in half.

"Go on, take it." Alrick said holding it out for him," I know how much you like these, I saw a bunch of wrappers in our room."

"But it's yo-." Alrick shoved the sweet into Engels open mouth and smirked.

"You said you feel happy when you eat this right? Well I feel happier eating when I'm eating with someone, food taste a million times better that way." He took a bite out of it. Couldn't blame Engel for being addicted to these things, this stuff was delicious. He noticed Engel finally taking it out of his mouth and taking smile bites of the cake." You're such a weirdo, getting so worked up and apologizing over nothing. It wasn't that big of a deal anyway. I still made it to class on time so there was nothing to be sorry about. So don't keep feeling bad about it, okay?" It was just like Alrick thought earlier, there was no way he was ever gonna figure this guy out. Not in a million years. He finished his cake and threw away the wrapper in a trash can.

"There, didn't that cake taste better like I said it would?" Alrick said and turned around. And it was at the very moment that he caught sight of something amazing, something he never thought he would get to see. It excited him and sent chills down his spine. What he felt was so indescribable, he could only compare it to a current. A current moving through his body, sparking some unknown emotion deep within him. He experienced it all in less then a second.

He saw Engel smile. A gentle, sincere, _breathtaking_ smile.

"Yeah...it really did taste good."

And for a second, Alrick couldn't help think how lovely that smile was.

* * *

And there we have it, finally sprinkling a little bit of romance and cheesiness unto this story.  
XD Sorry if it seems are kinda moving to slow for you guys. Like," What?! THIRD CHAPTER AND ALL WE GET IS A FREAKING SMILE AND CORNY FEELS?! WHERES THE ACTION?! WHERES THE TOUCHING?! WHERES THE MAN SMEX?!" Well I am the kinda person that likes to write things and make it some more realistic. Relationships in real life take time to develop, they aren't just, "I love you," "I love you too." *makes out and does the horizontal nasty again the washing machine at the cleaners* That's not how things work. So I kinda make my stories lengthy to show that development. Granted there are going to be time skips and such.  
But it will get to the yummyness that is yaoi eventually. Be patient my lovely readers. lol  
Please review and tell me what you think, and even put some ideas of what you might want to be featured in a later chapter! :D Thanks for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

I just want to quickly say a great big 'ol THANK YOU to all you lovely sweethearts that have been reading my story! w  
I got such sweet reviews and every time I see another person view or follow my work, I just get so happy! 3 You guys are making my this journey worthwhile!  
Now, onto the chapter! :D Btw I hope you all appreciate that I've been trying to keep things frequently updated. I am trying my best just for you guys. ^ w ^

* * *

It'd been 3 weeks since that day, and as much as Alrick could try, he couldn't erase the image of Engel's smile from his mind. Sure, in those 3 weeks Alrick had gotten a lot more used to having Engel around. If he wasn't hanging out with Peter and the gang, then you could usually find him hanging out with Engel in their room. They wouldn't really talk much, but they were comfortable enough around each other. They would eat snacks together, maybe watch TV together, or help each other out with homework if they needed it. But no matter what they did, whenever Alrick stared at Engel's apathetic face long enough, he was brought back to that smile. The idea that such a sweet expression could come from the very same emotionless visage that greeted him every morning was mind-boggling.  
It was kind of a silly thought really. Engel was still human, he could breathe, walk, and talk (sorta) like any normal person. So it wasn't like it was impossible for him to smile, but coming from him it just seemed like much more of a big deal. Maybe if he was meeting him for the first time it'd be different, but he knew Engel and his behavior, and that's why it came as such a shock.

But more shocking then that, was the fact that Alrick was still even thinking about it after so long. And that thought embarrassed him like hell.

"_Why am I being such an idiot about this?!_" he thought to himself, he laid in his bed and looked over towards his roommate who was, once again, merrily sketching away in his sketchbook,"_ It's just same old Engel. Artsy, weird, and emotionless Engel._" And just as he thought this, the long white haired teen peeked over his sketch pad and looked back at him. The image of Engel's sincere gaze and smile flashed in his mind, and Alrick blushed slightly, before quickly tossing a pillow over at Engel's head.

"Ow." Engel spoke in his monotone voice. "What was that for?"

"No reason." Alrick said turned away, really he was mentally scolding himself for allowing that image to appear in his brain. He ran a hand threw his thick red hair and whipped his phone out of his pocket. It was almost time for him to head out again. He promised Peter and the guys that they'd get together to watch some weird comedy movie that Peter bought. He didn't really care much for the movie, but he had time to kill, so why not? He tried inviting Engel again, but of course the invitation was denied. Alrick got out of bed and started calling Peter's phone to let him know he'd be over there soon, but was surprised when Peter didn't pick up. Peter always answered his phone. He called his number again and finally heard someone answer.

"Yo, Peter I'm coming over in a bit, is everyone already there?" Alrick asked as he slipped on his sneakers.

"Hello, Alrick?" A voice said.

"Satoshi? What's up, where's Peter? He told me to call him."

"Oh, sorry but we can't do it today."

"What? Why not?"

"Well, I'm not sure why or how yet, but Peter might have gotten himself sick."

"Seriously? It hasn't even been a month into the school year and he's already gotten himself sick?" Alrick rolled his eyes. Only Peter.

"Yeah," Satoshi chuckled," but it's fine, I'll be here in our dorm room to make sure he's okay. I'd say I'm taking good care of him."

"And while that's happening no one is allowed in the room right?"

"We can't risk getting you guys sick too, I'm sorry if this has caused you any inconvenience. Maybe you, Romeo, and Toby could still get together if you end up bored." Alrick looked over Engel lightly sketching what looked to be a picture of a hand and thought it over a bit in his head.

"You know what, it's fine. I hang out with you guys all the time, I think I'll just spend today chilling in my dorm room." Satoshi was a little surprised at the other's decision, but smiled.

"Keeping your roommate company I see. Giving yourselves some alone time maybe? My, my, I wonder what you're planning." He said teasing Alrick a little, the red head glared into his phone with a slight blush.

"You've been hanging around Peter too much."

"Maybe I have, but it's because we hang out so much that we're such good friends." Satoshi said and looked back at Peter fast asleep on his bed," You and Engel could be like that too if you tried."

"You make it sound so easy."

"Yes I understand, it's his quiet nature that must get in the way of you two being able to communicate and become closer, but I'm sure it's not impossible. I bet Engel already considers you a really good friend."

"Dunno about that...it's hard to tell."

"Well just because it's hard to see doesn't mean that it's not there. From a stranger's perspective, Peter and I must seem like very different people. You'd hardly guess there was even the slightest chance of friendship being able to form between us. But us being brought together as roommates for so long has given us that chance, and we're closer then ever. It's no different for the two of you. You are his roommate after all Alrick, you are already a lot closer to him then most people." Satoshi sat down beside Peter's bed and placed a hand on the sleeping blonde's forehead. "I'm sure there are sides to Engel that only you've been given the chance to see." Again the flash of Engel's smile flashed into his mind. Alrick gripped his phone tighter.

"Sato-."

"Oh sorry, I must be babbling. Peter says I have a tendency to do that when I'm not eating. Well I have to go now and tend to your brother, I really do hope you have a good night. Take care."

"Yeah...you too." Then he heard the call end. Alrick looked down at his phone in wonder, Satoshi was a pretty quiet guy, no different then most teens. But when he opened his mouth, he seemed so mature. It was bizarre. He did have a point though, Engel was his roommate, the two of them should be a lot closer by now. Peter and Satoshi we're like best buddies and Romeo and Toby weren't roommates for that long, but even they had gotten to be pretty good friends. So what was going wrong with him and Engel? Alrick analyzed the situation over and over in his mind, but could never come up with a good enough answer. Sure, he usually chalked it up to Engel's shyness and quietness, but that couldn't be the only reason. Satoshi and Toby were both pretty quiet people, but Peter and Romeo still got it to work out. But how?

The light bulb went off in his head. The problem wasn't Engel's attitude, but his own. Peter and Romeo had one definite thing in common, and that was that they were very persistent people. Even if you didn't wanna do something, these guys would poke, and scream, and annoy you until you eventually-but reluctantly-agree with them. Whenever Alrick invited Engel anywhere, he never really pulled him by the arm and dragged him out the door whenever he said 'no.' He merely accepted it. It was okay to let Engel do what he wanted, but maybe once or twice it was okay to try being more forceful.

"So are you gong to your friend's room?' Engel asked quietly.

"Umm, no actually he kinda had to cancel last minute. So, I guess it's just you and me here tonight then."

"Yeah, I guess so.."He looked back down at his sketchbook and continued sketching.

"...Yup, just you and me. Us. Two bros. Chilling." Alrick said, trying to emphasize each word to see if Engel would take the hint.

"Guess so."

"..."

"..."

Okay, so the direct approach would have to do this time.

Alrick stomped over to his roommate and grabbed his sketchbook out of his hands. Engel's eyes darted up, trying to grab at it so he could finish his piece, but Alrick held it just out of reach.

"No. Not tonight, look I respect your love of the arts and I think you do some pretty amazing stuff. But I am not going to let you waste another moment of your free time doodling. There is a bunch more stuff you and I could do together besides draw."

"But I want to draw. I'm not done." Engel stared up at him, a small hint of anger-least Alrick figured it was-in his eyes.

"No means no. Look, Engel, how long have the two of us been roommates?"

"...About 3 weeks."

"Right. And in those 3 weeks, how much time have we spent time doing stuff with each other. And no, sitting next to me sketching while I watch TV or go online doesn't count."

"...What abo-?"

"Sleeping doesn't count either."

"..."

"You can't answer can you? That's because you and I hardly spend any time together. We're roommates Engel, we should be hanging out, eating lunch together. We should know things about each other, but the only thing we really know about each other is our names."

"That's not true," Engel said, gripping the sheets of his bed," I think we know plenty about each other." Alrick smacked his forehead and let out a sigh.

"Pray tell me, what on earth could I possibly know about you besides the fact that you like art."

"You know I like baumkuchen, you know I'm messy, and that I tend to fall asleep in random places." Alrick raised a brow and poked his smaller male friend on the head.

"I hardly call that knowing a lot about you." Alrick said," And what about you? You said you know a lot about me, but you're never around me enough to know anything." Engel sat up straight on the edge of his bed and looked down at the red head's shoes.  
"I know you like to go on the computer a lot. I know you argue with your friend Peter a lot,... but you still like to go and visit him because you're very close. You don't ever eat food by yourself unless you're eating a snack. You're favorite colors are blue and white, because you wear them whenever you go out. You like to eat Golden Delicious apples..." Engel's eyes slowly loomed over to the slightly aged Golden Delicious apple that Alrick had given him and gazed at it for a second,"...And I know you're nice."

Yet again, Engel left him without words. Had Engel really been paying that much attention to him? Alrick scratched the back of his head and looked away.

"_This guy...always saying such embarrassing stuff._" he thought and sighed.

"Okay, so you know a fair amount of things about me, but there's still a whole lot of things you don't know. And God only knows the long list of things I don't know about you." Alrick said and patted Engel on the head with his sketchbook. "Maybe 3 weeks doesn't seem like much to you, but two people can get to know a lot about each other in that time. Hell, there's a lot two people can learn about each other in just a day-no- an hour. And here you and I stand not knowing squat. Don't you see something wrong with that picture?"

"...Not really.."

"You're not serious? Come on, haven't you ever tried getting to know one of your other roommates?"

"No." Alrick's eyes widened.

"What do you mean 'no'? Are you telling me that in all the time you've spent at this boarding school, you didn't try talking to them even once?"

"I never had the chance to, they all left before I ever could."

"...They...left?" What was Engel talking about?

"Yes. They would only stay with me for about a day, before they eventually requested that they be relocated to another room." Engel looked down into his mattress, tracing little circles on his bed spread with his finger." I wouldn't get a new roommate for a while, then when another finally came, they left too..."

Alrick cursed in his head, he never meant to bring up such a touchy subject, he didn't know that Engel had that kind of past here. He knew Engel's weirdness got in the way of making friends, but he didn't think people would be so sick of him that they'd leave him after just a day. Sure, when he walked into this messy abyss called a room, he wanted to turn back and get the hell out, but after meeting Engel, it wasn't all that bad. It was actually becoming awkwardly cozy when he wasn't tripping over Engel's stuff. But this all sorta explained why the room was so messy to begin with. With no one to worry about, he didn't really need to keep the room clean for anyone. Engel must have been used to doing his own thing because there was no one there to ever tell him he couldn't. It all seemed sort of extreme though, he couldn't imagine someone disliking Engel that much and leaving without even giving the soft spoken artist a chance.

"So you've...never really had a roommate then?"

"...No. I'm not used to having roommates, after a while I was actually starting to like it better that way...but" Engel looked back up into his eyes and paused for a moment, as though he were trying to find the right words to say," I don't mind you here. I actually like having you..." Alrick blushed a bit under the intense purple eyed gaze and looked to the side. This boy was shameless.

"..Well, th-"

"But I don't like you right now...dumb face." Engel said in his apathetic voice.

"D-dumb face?!" What a weird insult." The hell?! What did I do?"

"You stole me sketchbook."

"I had to!"

"Stealing isn't art."

"Shut up! Look, you and I are gonna sit down and do something together like normal roommates and that's final!"

"...Then you forced my hand." Engel stood up on his mattress , towering over Alrick," I will just have to take it by force." Engel's arms tried to reach for the sketchbook, but Alrick held him back, keeping him just out of reach. Any table he almost managed to grab it, he would swipe it away or switch it to his other hand. Apparently, unlike Satoshi and Toby, Engel wasn't so willing to submit. He was a fighter.

"Quit it Engel! Just accept it!" Alrick said, trying to pull the other male away. A glint went off in Engel's eye, he was far from finished, he had to get his sketchbook back at any cost. He pulled away from Alrick and took a step back on his bed, and before Alrick even had time to react, lept off his bed to tackle him to the ground. "That's dange-ahh!" Alrick felt Engel's sudden body weight and fell on back with a thud. It hurt a little, but luckily some of the clothes that were left on the floor broke Alrick's fall. He could feel Engel on top of him and sighed, he was glad that he took most of the impact, that meant Engel was ,more or less, okay. He reached up his hand and patted the boy, feeling him fidget.

"Geez, don't do stupid stuff like that, one of us could have gotten hurt...You okay?" Alrick asked, and tried looking down at Engel who still had his face buried in his chest. "Hey...are you okay? Did you get-?"

"..and..." Engel mumbled into Alrick's chest and he had a hard time hearing him.

"Speak up, I can't hear you."

"..Your hand." Alrick looked at him confused and moved his hands, he suddenly felt his palm pressed against something soft, and squeezed the foreign object without thinking. Engel flinched under his touch. "M-move your hand."

It took Alrick another good second of feeling it up before he realized that he was touching Engel's butt. He blushed bright red and frantically took his hand off.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't know, I'm sorry!" Alrick wanted to hide away in shame on his bed and wait for morning, he couldn't believe he just copped a feel of his friend's ass. He just turned what was supposed to be a totally innocent moment into something awkward. Engel slowly sat himself up and hovered over him. Alrick looked up wide eyed as he stared at Engel's face, the other wouldn't meet his eyes, but the look of embarrassment was still clear on his face. His usually pale face was now as red as the beret that had fallen off his head. It was so strange seeing Engel looking flustered, and at the same time it was kinda...cute.

Alrick grabbed that thought and quickly tossed into the his mental trash bin.

Engel crawled off him and Alrick was finally able to sit up. The red head looked over to the side seeing the sketchbook he'd dropped and grabbed it.

"...You wanted us to get to know each other...now I know something new about you."

"W-what?"

"Pervert.."

"Excuse me?!" Alrick excalimed, his face burning up by the second.

"I learned that you're a pervert."

"I am not!"

"You touched my butt."

"You act like I did that on purpose!"

"Who knows if you did."

"I didn't!"

"I guess you're that type of person."

"I'm not any type of person! You don't know me well enough to say that!"

"Yes I do."

"You know nothing about me!"

"I know you're a pervert."

"I'LL KILL YOU!"

"And now you're a murderer."

Alrick rubbed his temples and sighed deeply. He'd been sighing a lot lately since he met Engel. Alrick grabbed the sketchbook tightly in his hand and ran his other hand through his hair.

"Okay..forget it, just level with me for a second please. I just want to try and talk with you for once okay? What do I have to do to make that happen?"

"...Let me draw you.."

"I said no sketching.

"I know, but I wanna draw you...while I draw you, we can play 20 questions." Alrick looked at the sketchbook in his hands and thought it over. It didn't sound like such a bad idea, Engel could still do what he wanted and this way they could both get answers. Fair enough.  
"Okay, that sounds good to me. Let's do it."

"But...I have one more condition."

"Okay..?"

"...I wanna draw you shirtless." He said bluntly.

"And you were calling me a pervert!" Of course there was a catch. There's_ always_ a catch.

"I need to practice drawing male anatomy. Your body is manlier then my own...so...I want to draw it."

"Bu-"

"No shirt, or no deal." Of course, when it had to do with art Engel would be more then willing to speak. Alrick was beginning to wonder if this was all worth it. All he could hear were Satoshi's words echoing in his head and all he could see was Engel's smile and his blushing face.  
"...Fine. But this is not going to become a regular thing."

Just how far was he gonna go for this oddball?

* * *

That our chapter ladies and gents. Sorry if this one seems a bit short or if it was mostly dialogue, but since this whole little game of twenty questions is gonna take up a lot of room, I thought it'd be be good to cut it here and let it continue to the next chapter. Sorry if I disappointed XD  
I keep my chapters within the 3000 word range...I don't even mean to..I just do it, XD  
Oh btw the way, I made a tumblr account the other day...I haven't the slightest clue how to use it but tell me if you guys are interested in seeing it. I put it an ask box so that you guys could ask me questions that you have, be it personal or about the story. :3 Or maybe just some things you wanna say. Anything goes, just ask and I'll give you a link and if you have trouble finding the little thing that leads to my ask box, just tell me. XD Thanks again for reading!  
Tell me what you think and give me ideas on what you wanna see, I might just include it in later chapters.


	5. Chapter 5

Okay onto chapter 5! Thanks for all the support you guys, you've helped motivate me to keep this story going, and you have also given me some cute little ideas that I might add in the future! Please keep reviewing and if you would be so kind, spread the word out so that others can take a look at my story too! I would really appreciate it! :D  
And please, remember if you guys have any questions for me, I have an ask box on my Tumblr and I would be more then happy to answer you guys! w

I do not own Hetalia or any of it's characters, all credit goes to Hidekaz Himaruya.

* * *

How the hell did things end up like this?

That was the only question on Alrick's mind as he sat there on Engel's bed, his now bare chest expose to the cool air of their dorm room. He had agreed with Engel that in exchange for playing 20 questions and spending some 'quality time' together, he would take of his shirt and let Engel draw his chest. He thought to just wiggle his way back under the covers and call it a night at that point. But for whatever reason, he couldn't bring himself to do it. This is was a rare opportunity for him to get to know more about his friend, taking off his shirt was a small price to pay. It could have been worse, at least he still had his pants on.

But that didn't mean the situation wasn't still weird. It was. It's not like getting shirtless in front of a guy was weird, years of living with his brothers and getting crammed into a locker room full of teenage boys got him accustomed to that. And being shirtless in front of Engel wasn't any different, but unlike the many guy's from the past, Engel was-as always- staring at him. At least when guys change, they have the decency to look away from each other out of respect. But Engel just sat there directly in front of him, staring away.

Alrick kept having to repeat himself that it was just for the sake of the drawing, but it didn't make him feel any less odd. It was the apple drawing incident all over again. Engel's eyes were focusing in on every detail of his figure, paying close and careful attention to how the light hit his skin. Distinguishing light and shadow, finding the shapes that made up his abs and torso, mapping out his entire body skillfully in his head to recreate a perfect image. Engel's fiery gaze was scorching his skin, it made him feel strangely vulnerable, bare. Alrick wanted Engel to start drawing, just so he could pay attention to something other then him.

"...You have a nice figure. You're very healthy." Engel mumbled, this guy was the king of strange compliments. Alrick rubbed the back of his neck and shut his eyes.

"Umm, thanks. Engel can we hurr-."

"Alrick." The red head heard his name and opened his eyes.

"What is it?" he asked. Engel fiddled around with his hands, trying to find a proper way of asking his question.

"...Can I touch you?"

"WHAT?!" Alrick leaned back in shock. Yeah, he definitely wanted his shirt back on.

"Not like that...wishful thinking pervert."

"I do NOT wish for you to touch me you weirdo! You're the perv for even suggesting it! What do you mean by touching me anyway?!"

"Sometimes I draw things better when I can feel them..."

"So let me get this straight...You want to feel my chest?"

"You felt my butt."

"I told you not to bring that up!" Alrick yelled with his facing burning up.

"...Can't I?"

"...Ugh, fine just...make it quick, I beg you." Alrick positioned himself, arms at his side ready to take whatever it was Engel was gonna do. Engel scooted closer towards him and paused. He slowly lifted his hands up and laid them on Alrick's chest, it took everything Alrick had not to flinch . The red head took a deep breathe and shut his eyes, waiting for Engel's hands to move.

Engel's hands began to roam Alrick's chest curiously. He wasn't ever able to really get this close and personal with a model before, he wanted to savor the moment. His finger's gingerly brushed against Alrick's skin, sending shivers down the taller one's spine. The way the skilled artist's hands would trace and follow the delicate contours of his firm build gave Alrick goosebumps. Engel's finger's followed the shape of his collar bone, then down the middle of his sternum, gently dipping beneath his chest and going further to feel the layer's of muscle on his abs. Alrick's breathing got heavy, every little touch and stroke sent waves through his body.

Alrick opened his eyes to take a peak at Engel. There was a fair amount of space between them, but they were still pretty close. From this angle, Alrick could really take a good look at Engel's face and notice traits about him that he hadn't seen before. He never knew Engel had small beauty mark beneath his left eye, or that his lashes were so thick and long, kinda like a girls. Since Engel always had his face burried in his work, he never really got the chance to look at him much. Not like he would spend hours looking at this guy's face but still..

How funny, they hadn't even started their game yet, and they were already getting to see and understand sides of each other that they didn't know.

Alrick turned his head away in embarrassment and sighed. Something about this moment felt sorta...'intimate'.

"Umm...I don't mean to ruin your fun here, but, you think we can hurry this up?"

"...Right. Sorry." Engel pulled away and clasped his hands together. Maybe he had also gotten a little into the moment as well. He reached for his pencil and eraser and was ready to begin his drawing. "You start."

* * *

They had agreed before hand that each could only ask each other a maximum of 20 questions, they weren't allowed to ask more then 1 question at a time, and they weren't allowed to give short one word answers. And instead of one asking 20 questions and then the other asking 20, they were just gonna go back and forth.

"So...Engel, I've always been sorta curious...what is your nationality?" Alrick started off with a simple question, pretty easy to answer. And since Engel wasn't allowed to give his usually blunt short answers, the game was sure to last a lot longer.

"I'm Austrian. I was originally born in Austria and came here with my family when I was 3." Engel said as he sketched out the basic shapes. Alrick did notice that Engel had a slight accent, but not enough for anyone to really catch it. He only had it on a few words.

"Well that's pretty unique, okay, now it's your turn."

"Same question to you, what's your nationality?

"I'm Swedish." Alrick said," I wasn't born there, but I have visited Sweden a lot. We go there all the time during vacation and usually stay with relatives."

"Your turn."

"Okay. Since Austrians basically speak German, I figure your name must be German too...so what does your name translate to?"

"...Angel. My name means Angel, at least...that's what my parents told me." He mumbled, erasing part of his sketch and redrawing it with a light pencil. That was an interesting little fun fact. He wondered what it was that inspired his parents to name him. "My turn now?"

"Oh yeah, it is."

"Okay...why do you like going online so much?" Alrick smirked a little, he'd been asked this question a lot in the past. He remembered how much Peter use to pester him about getting off his computer to come play with him when they were younger.

"Why I like it so much? Well...I don't really know. My parents got my older brother, Berwald, a computer back when I was really young. Berwald was mostly suppose to use it to type up assignments or whenever he needed to research stuff. Berwald didn't really use it much though, so whenever he wasn't on it he would let me go on instead. I found all sorts of cool games and websites, I guess you could say I was hooked from the start. I cant say why I think it's so cool, but I like it so I go online. That make sense?" Engel listened carefully to him and nodded, Alrick hoped that whole explanation didn't really bore him, but that had to keep the game moving along somehow. "Okay so now it's my turn."

"Right.." Engel said, Alrick thought over his next question, there were so many, he didn't know what to pick.

"Well...you wanted to know why I love being online so much, so what about you? Why do you like art so much?" Alrick asked. This question was a big one and one that he had on his mind since the beginning. There were a lot of passionate artist out there, but Alrick had never met one that lived and breathed art as much as Engel did. Every one has a turning point in their life, that grand moment where something changes them forever. What was Engel's? What was it that inspired or motivated him to pursue art to such an extent.

"..." Engel stopped sketching at that point and Alrick looked at him worried. This wasn't another touchy subject was it? He didn't want their fun game to turn into something sad or personal. Alrick's apology sat on his tongue, ready to say sorry if he had to, but before he could, Engel got up to look for something under his bed. What he pulled out was a large worn-out old shoe box covered in stickers and little doodles.

"...Wh-?"

"This is my happy box."

"Happy box?' Engel nodded.

"...Every time I found something I really liked and wanted to remember...I would put it in my happy box." Engel opened the lid up slightly and rummaged through his box for something. He pulled out a small model, it looked like a ball with tiny windows and a small round hole at the top. Alrick stared at it for a while, but he couldn't figure out what it was suppose to be, if it was suppose to be anything. "You don't know what this is right?"

"Sorry...I'm drawing a blank." Alrick said truthfully.

"...Kugelmugel."

"Kugelmugel...?"

"Yes. It's a replica of the Republic of Kugelmugel, a small independent micronation found in Austria. It's a ball shaped house with a 'population' of one, that one being the creator of Kugelmugel, artist Edwin Lipburger. He's was nearly put in jail for refusing to pay his taxes." Alrick was impressed, Engel knew a lot about this place.

"That's interesting...but...what does this have to do with my question?"

"...My brother took me to see Kugelmugel once when I was young. I was just getting into coloring and drawing then. When he told me about the history behind Kugelmugel...I was really inspired... Edwin Lipburger was a visionary who went through such great lengths just for his art, I wanted to be just like him. I wanted to experience what he felt for his art first hand. So I started practicing more and more to develop my skills...It helped me discover my passion and I have been drawing ever since..." Alrick could see just the tiniest hint of a smile about to break out on Engel's face. The young artist lowered his head and put his model back in his box, his face quickly returning to it's usual facade. Alrick chuckled, this game was really working after all. He could tell that all this talking was new to Engel, but he was still putting up with it just for him. And because of that, they were learning all sorts of things about each other that they would have never known if they just kept quiet.

"Look at that, I'm learning a whole bunch about you already. See what happens when you finally decide to use that voice of yours?" Alrick said flicking his friend on the head. Engel grabbed his forehead, pausing a bit at the others words and nodded.

"...Alrick, it's my turn now..right?"

"Hm? Oh yeah right, ask whatever you want. It can be whatever you want."

"Why do you like Golden Delicious apples?"

"You know, your questions are just so deep and profound you know that?" Alrick replied sarcastically.

"Just answer the question."

"Fine, fine. Well it's sorta a long story..."

From that point on the two kept on talking, going back and forth, asking each other all sorts of random questions. Some were good, some were downright silly, and others were just strange. But still, Alrick was actually enjoying himself, this was the most Engel and him did together since he came to this school. And maybe it was just his imagination, but Engel seemed to be enjoying himself a lot too. Even though Alrick always thought Engel was complex and hard to read, when he got to know a little more about him, he could see that Engel was actually pretty simple.

They were getting down to their last questions, so Alrick was really trying to put some thought into it. He wanted this last question to be a good one, but he was having trouble figuring out what it was he wanted to ask. Alrick's eyes scanned the room, trying to see if maybe something around him could help spark a question. It seemed pretty hopeless since their room was just filled with a bunch of clutter and paintings, but then his eyes spotted something. His Golden Delicious apple, the same one he gave Engel.

"...Okay, my last question..."Alrick said," So I've been wondering this for a while now, and I guess now is a better time to ask then any, so here goes. Why do you still keep that thing?" He pointed to the fruit on the nightstand. Engel followed his finger to the golden fruit and looked straight back down towards his sketchbook. Alrick raised a brow at him.

Was Engel...embarrassed?

"...You'd probably think it was silly." Engel said playing with one of his braids.

"Well...honestly, I can't entirely say I wouldn't. You do a lot of weird things."

"...It's another item for my box." Alrick's eyes widened. "...None of my roommates had ever given me anything before...nor did they ever let me draw them. You were the only one...it made me happy. So I wanted to keep it...as a memory." Alrick blushed at his words and turned his head.

"...Weirdo, I didn't give you much. It was just an apple."

"...It was more than they ever gave me." Engel said quietly. Alrick looked down.

"Well...it's your turn now, last question." Alrick said. Engel was quiet, for a good while he just continued sketching out the final details of his picture. "_...Maybe he's having trouble thinking of a ques-._"

"Alrick." Engel's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Yeah?"

"...Why..." Engel's voice was hesitant, he swallowed the small lump in his throat and stopped sketching,"...Why did you stay?" Alrick gazed at him in surprise.

"...What do you-?"

"Even though everyone else left me, even though you walked into this mess of a room, even though you saw how weird I was...you still stayed. So...why?"

"Well that's because..."Alrick stopped.

He couldn't think of an answer.

He dug into his mind, trying to recall the first few days he spent with Engel in his room. He thought back to what they did, what was said...but he couldn't find it. In the first two days of knowing him, he let Engel draw him, tucked him into bed, bought him his favorite snack. And for what? Why? He didn't know Engel all that long and still...he did things for him, but why? Even he couldn't really answer. It wasn't just him being nice or feeling obliged to do it, he just...did it.

"...Because what?" Engel asked.

"...I dunno, I mean..." he looked up towards him, those deep purple pools staring back at him, waiting for an answer. "I guess...I dunno, I met you and you were just...different."

"Different...different how?"

"God, I don't know, how else can I say it. You were different from others," Alrick said, the words were just flowing from his mouth, he felt like he was babbling." It was impossible for me to really compare you to anyone else. It's like...you stood out. You weren't the same, you were special."

They both froze in their place, a blush forming on each of their faces.

"...I'm special?"

"...I-I, I mean.."

"...How bold, what a natural flirt you are." Engel mumbled.

"HEY! You know that's not what I meant!" Alrick said glaring at him, his face felt like it was burning. How come whenever he was around Engel, he always got him to say something embarrassing? Engel's shameless attitude must be rubbing off on him.

"I know..I was kidding..." Engel muttered, he finished his sketch and wrote his name at the bottom. "...Thank you for saying that though."

"Yeah whatever..no prob," Alrick glanced over at the clock, it was getting late, they were gonna have to go to sleep soon. "Well, it's time for bed, I'm gonna go hop in the showers and get ready." Alrick got off the bed and stretched, staying in one position for such a long time still felt weird. But living with Engel meant he was probably gonna end up getting used to it. He didn't bother putting his shirt back on, instead he grabbed a change of clothes and his towel and opened up the door.

"You gonna be awake by the time I get back?" Alrick asked, Engel shrugged. "Well...just in case you're already asleep, good night...and thanks for putting up with me today. It was actually kinda fun."

"...It...was fun." Engel said. Alrick smirked and rolled his eyes.

"Well, I'm gonna go, hope you're still awake when I get back." Alrick said and left the room to head down the hall and into the bathroom.

* * *

"Again...why am I not surprised?" Alrick stared down at Engel, who was-yet again-sleeping on the floor. "_How did he even get there? He was lying in bed when I left..._" Alrick smacked his head and sighed. He knelt down to lift his roommate in his arms and laid him down the bed, removing his head and shoes like he had the last time. Another thing he was bound to get used to.

Alrick strolled over to bed and laid back, staring up at the ceiling with a yawn. Today was an interesting day, he got to spend time with his roommate, something he thought he'd never do. Sure, it started off a little rough, but they got through it and had a good time. Alrick stared over at Engel, he didn't wanna go back to the way it was before with him on his computer and Engel sketching the whole time. He wanted them to be able to hang out more like the way he did with Peter.

"_Maybe I should start planning some stuff for us to do..._" Alrick though, that's what Peter usually did for the gang anyway. He sighed, he'd gone to some great lengths for Engel since he stayed here.

"_...Why did you stay?_"

Engel's question suddenly rang in his ears.

" _You weren't the same, you were special._" Alrick groaned, clutching his slightly red face in his hand. The words had come out so naturally...He turned to his side to stare at Engel.

Special.

Was that really the reason? Was Engel just a special case? Or was there more to it then that?

* * *

Well that was a cute little chapter. I had fun writing this one out, twas nice. e w e  
I'm gonna go to art college soon, and I'm gonna be around a lot of people in a dorm room. We aren't gonna know anything about each other, but I hope we wind up doing something like playing twenty questions, it'd fun. e w e  
Oh before I forget~  
Please take a look at this awesome cover that was drawn for the story by the beautiful Erechan on deviantart! She drew the characters in the outfits I imagined them wearing for the story! :D It's amazing, she did a great job! 3 Check out her other work too! It's awesome! If you know anyone with a deviantart that wants art or needs a cover, go to her! :D

art/Comish-My-Awkward-Angel-391208363

Thanks for reading, please spread the word, review, and tell me things you wanna see happen, it might appear in later chapters. :3


	6. Chapter 6

Next chapter.  
I AM SO SORRY! It usually never takes me this long to update stuff guys. Q A Q  
I am very busy and stressed with trying to find a job to pay to get into college, and I had to take care of a lot of things to get myself enrolled into the art college I fell in love with. Not to mention so many drawing commissions I had...ugh..it was just dreadful. Hope you guys can forgive me and understand Q ^ Q I love you my loyal readers and I know it isn't much but I wrote what I could! :'D Please enjoy!  
And please, check out the cover to this story made by the wonderful Erechan.

art/Comish-My-Awkward-Angel-391208363

I do not own Hetalia or any of it's characters, all credit goes to Hidekaz Himaruya.

* * *

Alrick sighed heavily as he sat there in his math class. Out of all the subjects, math had to probably be his least favorite. Not cause he sucked at it or anything, he could usually get through quizzes and tests no problem, but the subject itself was just boring. And the teacher's unusually monotone voice wasn't making matters any better. He laid his head in his hand and gazed out the window. It was mid October now and the scenery was changing, the rich green of the trees leaves were now a random assortment of browns, reds, and oranges. The sky was becoming more clouded and the weather was getting cold. It got chilly pretty quick over here, it wasn't overly cold, but you definitely needed a jacket if you ever wanted to venture outside. Soon enough it'd be Halloween and Peter would probably drag him to some weird little costume party in his room or maybe the school was gonna hold some sort of dance. Either way, he knew he was gonna end up going whether he liked it or not.

As he continued to gaze out the window his eyes suddenly caught sight of something below. He looked and could see numerous students walking out, sketchbooks in hand, ready to draw the scenery outside. Apparently, the art teachers wanted to take the chance to go outside and do some landscape drawings before it got too cold. Supposedly, they were doing some project where they'd go out and draw what they saw outside with each season and see how the outside world changes overtime. They'd been going outside for the past week now just to sketch so it gave Alrick something to pay attention to besides the teacher's boring lecture. And among the vast amount of art students below, one in particular stood out. A certain red beret wearing someone.

"Engel's out by the tree again." Alrick thought. During the week, while the art students were outside, Alrick would always stare out the window and see Engel sitting in that same spot and he'd just watch and watch until the class period was over and they all went inside. At one point Engel had actually noticed him by the window and would give him a small nod or one of his strange little apathetic waves and Alrick usually waved right back and that sorta became their routine. It came to the point Alrick was just staring at the window waiting for Engel to come out.

They'd gotten a whole lot closer since their little game that night. They were spending a lot more time hanging out with each other in their dorm. If he hadn't already reserved the night for Peter, then you always found him in his room with Engel chilling and talking to each other (Though the conversations still remained pretty one-sided). Engel would even come and eat lunch with him sometimes outside, though he never spent dinner with him. Regardless, the two were starting to learn more about each other and, in Alrick's opinion, were becoming pretty good friends. He liked hanging around him, sure it was different then hanging out with Peter and the gang. Those guys we're chaotic and loud when you put them all together in the same room, Engel was a lot more quiet. But he felt comfortable enough that he could just be himself and know that Engel probably wouldn't judge or care about any of the things he did.  
It was sorta funny, in the beginning of all this he never would have thought they'd get along this well. It was nice...and it made him feel oddly happy.

Suddenly he felt his phone vibrate his pocket. He groaned, it was probably Peter again. He was always texting him during class whenever he couldn't find anything to do. He sneaked a peak at his cell phone below his desk and stared at the message, but to his surprise it wasn't from Peter, it was Engel. When he found out Engel owned a cell phone he added him to contacts, but he never actually got a text from him. Engel even said himself that he never really even used the phone, he only had it because his older brother bought it for Engel to contact him during emergencies and insisted he carry it around with him at all times.

"Well this is rare. What does he want?" he opened up the message and read it.

**'You look bored.'**

Seriously? Was that all? He shrugged and texted him back.

**'Aren't I always? It's math class. = . ='**

**'So are you doing anything important?'**

**'Not really. It's review stuff. Why?' **

**'Come down.' **

Alrick stared at the message in shock. Come down? As in skip class and come outside? Not like he was against the idea, anything was better then boring his ass off in this class. He was just surprised that Engel of all people was telling him this. He looked up towards the board for a second and thought it over.

**'...I'll be right down.'**

Alrick raised his hand.

"Sir, I don't feel too good...I think I need to go to the nurse and lie down for a bit." The teacher looked at him suspiciously.

"Oh? Well, this is all just review...so I suppose you can afford to pass on today's lecture...let's just not make this a regular thing." The second the teacher excused him he was out the door. He texted Engel telling him to meet him on the far side of the school near the sports field since he knew there wouldn't be any gym class there this period and hurried out. By the time he got there Engel was already sitting against the wall, sketchbook in his lap like always, and waiting.

"Hope I haven't kept you here too long." he said. Engel turned his head to look up at him and shook it. "Oh that's good then." Alrick took a seat beside him and leaned against the wall looking up towards the sky. "So whats up texting me here all of a sudden, was it seriously just cause I looked bored."

"You did look bored."

"Well yeah, but you've probably seen me with that look on my face for a whole week, why bother now?"

"...I want to draw a better picture of you."

"You want to draw me ag-wait what do you mean by better?"

Engel flipped through his sketchbook and showed him these light sketches of someone posed looking out into the distance. It was the same person and pose each time, as though Engel was trying to perfect his sketch and drew it over and over until it was perfect. But the face wasn't very clear, there we're no distinct features that could tell you who it was, just a blank face with one or two lines.

"...Wait...is that suppose to be me?! Have you been drawing me looking out the window this whole week?"

"...Yes."

"WHY?!"

"I finished my landscape early...so I decided to draw you instead. You had a lovely pose. Your bored face is art." Alrick was gonna ignore that.

"Engel, I know I should be used to you drawing me and whatnot, but that's a bit creepy."

"Drawing you from a distance is...creepy?"

"Tiny bit."

"...And staring at me draw this whole week...wasn't creepy?" Alrick stared, a blush quickly covering his face as he waved his arms frantically. How could Engel tell he was looking from so far away?!

"Y-y-you got it all wrong, I was just bored and when I saw the art students go outside I just thought why not look and then when I saw you I just stared cause I actually recogni-" Engel covered his lips with a pencil, hushing him.

"You talk fast...I was just kidding..Alrick." Alrick calmed himself down and ran a hand through his hair.

"...Geez Engel, you-"

"But I was serious about drawing you."

"Huh?"

"Take off your shirt."

"In this weather?!"

"Why not?"

"I'll get a cold or maybe die of hypothermia if you take too long!"

"But I want more anatomy practice."

"Please stop." Alrick said and slapped his forehead,"...Maybe later I'll let you, when were both in the privacy of our own dorm." Engel nodded, okay with the answer, and leaned back on the wall. God, this guy was gonna be the end of him. Alrick looked down at the sketchbook and swapped it from him. Engel reacted instantly trying to snatch it back.

"Calm down, I'm not trying to keep from you, trust me I learned my lesson from last time. I just wanna see your landscape drawing...is that okay?" Engel seemed to calm down at that and sat there for a moment before nodding gently. Alrick opened it up skimming through the pages until he finally found the one he was looking for. A detailed drawing of the school and the colorful trees that surrounded it. It, like all of Engel's other works, was stunning and on point. The school was perfectly drawn and his perspective was phenomenal. It almost felt like looking at a black an white photo, save for the few splashes of what looked like water color and color pencils given to the trees to make them stand out.

"And you finished this that early?"

"...I skipped lunch and continued working on it then, the rest I did at our dorm working off of memory..."

"Well you did good, I hardly ever see you draw landscapes. You mostly only ever draw people."

"People are art. Landscape is art too."

"You didn't strike me as the type that liked it that much." Engel shook his head.

"I like landscapes...because they are big, and big things are art." Engel said, bringing his knees up to his chest and hugging himself. He looked towards the sky, watching the clouds float by and slowly shut his eyes. "I like this assignment...because I like capturing scenery...The outside world is like one big masterpiece..continuously shifting and becoming newer and more amazing with each season...It's a constant cycle of beauty..." Alrick stared at him, yet another discovery to be made about the mysterious Engel. The guy sounded like such a poet.

"So is there any season in particular you like the most?"

"...Maybe spring, because that's when it starts raining a lot right?"

"Raining?" he raised a brow," You like rain?" Engel nodded.

"I love the rain...it's entrancing...it's soothed me since I was little...I wish I could paint in the rain, but that would be impossible. Still...I like to dream of the day where I can go to the highest point I can find...stand at the very top with a paintbrush in hand staring at a blank canvas while the rain pours down...and then I can just stare at the world below me getting covered in rain." Alrick leaned back and listened as the other spoke, whenever Engel got so into a topic Alrick always listened, it was so rare hearing him talk a lot. He remembered back when he first met him and he gave him that big apology speech, it was so choppy and clumsy, like he wasn't used to talking so much. But when he spoke about art, his words were a lot more clear and fluid. Sure, he still sorta paused randomly whenever he spoke, but you could get what it was he was saying.

"Who knows...maybe one of these days you'll get to do it." Alrick said.

"I can't...painting in the rain is impossible...the painting would always be washed away..."

"I guess, but you're really good at what you do. I'm sure you'll find a way to make it work...maybe the whole drenched, watered down look could be part of the piece. I mean anything can be art according to your standards right?" Engel seemed to pause lightly at those words but he slowly nodded.

"Right..."

"Good. Hell, maybe the place you wind up painting on might be this place. Pretty much anyone can sneak up on the roof of the school from what Peter told me. You just gotta walk up the steps, set up your canvas and boom. Start painting."

"If I do wind up doing that here...would you...join me?"

"You want me to go up on the roof to watch you paint in the rain?"

"...Do you...not want to?"

"Well...its not that, just..thought maybe it was something you'd wanna do in private is all."

"...You're right...I did wanna do it by myself. It's...more peaceful..." Engel turned his head to look at Alrick, staring at him for a moment, not saying a word. Alrick looked back curiously at him, wondering if this was even going anywhere. "...It's peaceful...but...you're one of the few people..who I wouldn't mind... sharing that peace..with.." Alrick stared wide eyed, a small blush on his face.

"So what I'm like some special case?"

"...You called me special first didn't you?" Alrick could feel heat rising into his face. He knew he said it to him, but it was still pretty damn embarrassing to hear. Especially coming out of Engel's mouth. He looked away from the long haired teen and sighed. Not like he could do much else, he couldn't doubt it, claiming never to have said it would be a lie. But it still made him wonder why it was he said those words to him, even after all this time they spent hanging out the question still lingered on in his head without an answer.

Alrick shook his head. Now wasn't the time for this. He glanced back towards Engel and handed him his sketchbook. Suddenly an idea popped in his head.

"So then...you like hanging out with me? And sharing your art with me?"

"..Yes...I do." Alrick rubbed his neck, the blush on his face stretching further.

"Well then...that's all I needed to hear." He nodded to himself, ignoring the strange look the other seemed to give him. He was already planning everything in his head for tommorrow. He just hoped Engel would like it.

* * *

The two sat in silence for a bit after their small chat, leaning against the wall and calmly staring up at the sky. Alrick could suddenly hear the sound of pencil scratching paper, he didn't have to look over at Engel to know what he was doing. He just kept staring upward and minding his own business. A strong gust of wind came by and made Alrick shiver. God, no wonder they weren't gonna be holding any gym classes outside today, this wasn't the weather for wearing gym shorts. He let out a sneeze and wiped his nose, he better not be getting sick out here or something. Sure it'd get him out of class for a few days, but being sick was crap.

"Damn its getting pretty cold. Aren't you chilly?"

"...A bit.." Engel suddenly dropped his pencil. The other reached out to grab it and turned to hand it to the white haired teen until something caught his eye. It was Engel's hands, they looked red and it looked like he was having some trouble moving his fingers.

"Geez, are you okay? Is this cause of the cold?"

"I have poor..circulation in my hands...it's not extremely bad, but drawing in this weather...messes...with my hands."

"What the hell Engel?! Why not wear gloves?!"

"They get in the way of art."

"If you ever want to draw art again, you'll cover your damn hands!"

"...I do...have a glove in my pocket.."

"Why didn't you use it?!" This guy was gonna give him a migraine.

"...I could only find one..."

"Then wear the one!"

"...But my other hand.." Alrick glared. What was he gonna do with this guy? He stared down at his roommate's red hands..somehow it looked kinda painful. As though his fingers were gonna freeze off and it wasnt even all that cold. There was no way he could just leave him like this, he needed to help him. That left just one option. His face went deep red and he scooted closer, digging in the others pockets until he found the glove. He wasted no time grabbing Engel's hand and slipping the glove in place. "But...Alrick..my left-"

"Shut up." And with that he sat close to the other and grabbed his left hand in right one and shoved it in his jacket pocket. It was so weird, it was like holding hands...

"Alrick..." Engel looked down at his sketchbook, a blush of his own spreading across his face. "How bold...making the first move..."

"Shut up. You know it isn't like that." He said with his face blazing. "Body heat keeps people warm all the time. It's just the logical thing to do."

"...It's a bit embarrassing."

"L-let it be embarrassing, it'll warm you up." Alrick didn't dare look his way, nor did Engel. They both just sat there, hand in hand inside Alrick's pocket and staring into their laps.

"You're hands...are warm.."

"And your's are freezing."

"Sorry.."

"...Don't say sorry. Just...keep the room clean and next time you might just find your other glove."

"...Okay." He nodded and continued to sketch in his sketch book.

Alrick sighed...how did things like this always manage to happen to them? They hadn't even known each other all that long and here they were holding hands in the cold like some sort of weird lovey dovey couple. Alrick swatted that thought away. A couple? Seriously? That just wasn't possible, for a lot of reasons. There was no way Alrick could just look Engel in the eye one day and call him his boyfriend, that would just be too bizarre. They probably wouldn't even act like normal couples do (Engel being in a relationship at all seemed like a strange thought in and of itself) ...and yet they always managed to get themselves in these little situations. Giving each other little 'gifts', falling on top of each other, holding hands...hell Engel had seen him shirtless and even touched him. For two people who'd only just started becoming friends, they had a lot of crap going on between them...

But it's not like all that couldn't have been prevented. Alrick didn't have to do nice things for him...but he did.

He didn't have to swat the sketchbook out of Engels hand and make the other practically pounce on him...but he wanted to get to know more about him.

He didn't have to pose for Engel...but when he saw the chance to learn more...he took it.

He didn't have to hold his hand...but he made the choice to go ahead and do it.

Alrick had never acted that way with Peter, and they were practically brothers. He and Romeo never had moment like this between each other even though they'd known each other for a while. And he doubted he could act this way with the others in their big group of friends...so...why Engel? Why did this all happen between him and Engel?

_"God, I don't know, how else can I say it. You were different from others."_

_" It was impossible for me to really compare you to anyone else. It's like...you stood out. You weren't the same, you were special."_

_Special_. That word again.

How was Engel special? How was he different?

Alrick felt the hand that he held in his pocket and looked towards Engel with a pensive gaze. Very slowly...he gripped his hand.

Was _this_ where he was different?

The fact that he could act in a way around him that he could act around no one else?

But that still left the question of 'Why?'

"Alrick...you're squeezing my hand.."

"Right. Sorry." He loosened his grip and stared off into the other's sketchbook. If only he could have a sign. If only he could have a sign as clear and bold as one of Engel's pictures. Maybe then he could see it...maybe then...

His thoughts were interrupted as he felt the shorter male lean against him.

"W-what are yo-?"

"...Sorry...I'm kinda sleepy..."

"...Whatever." He pulled out his phone and checked the time. "We still have half and hour worth of class time. Guess you can afford to take a nap."

"But then I'll be really tired."

"Then don't take a nap."

"But...I'm..tired..."

"Make up your damn mind Engel." God seriously what the hell about this weirdo made him think so much? He looked down feeling weight on his shoulder and saw that Engel had fallen asleep. Figures he would, he was always falling asleep in random ass places anyway. Alrick let out a deep sigh and laid his head back against the wall.

"Someone...send me a sign soon."

* * *

And there you have it! Again sorry it isnt much. lol But at least we have some progression on Alrick's end...sorta. XD Again I take things nice and slow to build up for something beautiful~ lol I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Please tell me what you think! And if you have any suggestions or ideas, tell me! It may just end up in the story!

And please visit my Tumblr page and go to my Ask box, anyone is free to ask questions you dont need an account and I will answer pretty much everything! :D

Thanks and I love you~


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